Mineral Production
Altho farming—agriculture and cattle-raising—must, for the time being, comprise the main source of industry of the population of the Ukraine, this blessed land does not lack other resources as well. Very great mineral resources lie in various districts of the Ukraine; the largest in the [[276]]Donetz Plateau, in the Carpathians, and in the Caucasus. There is little prospect, to be sure, that the Ukraine might, with the aid of its mineral resources, become an industrial country like Germany or England, yet there does exist some hope that it will soon be in a position to provide its own needs in the way of industrial products.
Gold is found in the Ukraine only in traces, hardly worth mentioning, in the gold-containing quartz of the Naholni kriaz in the Donetz Plateau. Silver, together with lead, appears much more frequently, chiefly in the Kuban and Terek regions of the Caucasus, where, in 1910, about 300,000 q. of lead and silver ore were mined (73% of the total Russian production), yielding 25.5 q. of silver (90%) and about 11,000 q. of lead (81%), and also in the Donetz region and in the Ukrainian Carpathians of the Bukowina and Northern Hungary. The amount produced outside of the Caucasus, on the other hand, is very insignificant. Zinc is found only in small quantities in the Naholni kriaz. Tin, nickel, chromium and platinum are not found anywhere in the Ukraine.
The first in the series of the more important mining products of the Ukraine is mercury. It is obtained from the cinnabar mines of Mikitivka, in the Donetz Plateau. Here, 842,000 q. of cinnabar were mined in 1905, yielding 320,000 kilograms of mercury. Outside the Ukraine, the Russian Empire has no mercury mines worthy of mention.
Copper ore is found in the Donetz Plateau, in Kherson and Tauria, in the Bukowina and Marmarosh, yet the production is comparatively small. Much greater is the copper production of the Caucasus, where, in 1910, about 2,500,000 q. of copper ore (35% of the Russian production) and 81,000 q. of copper (31%) were gained.
Much more important is the manganese production of the Ukraine. Manganese ores are gained chiefly from the oligocene strata of the Nikopol region (on the lower Dnieper), [[277]]and in Eastern Podolia. The production for the year 1907 amounted to 3,245,000 q., or 32% of the total Russian output and about one-sixth of the output of the world.
But all the remaining metal resources of the Ukraine disappear, as it were, beside the enormous wealth of iron of the land. Iron ores are found in great quantities in very many places in the Ukraine; many deposits have not been sufficiently explored to make exploitation seem advisable, and many, for various reasons, are not being exploited. The iron production of the Ukraine is consequently limited to a few centers, but in these it is of very great importance. The most important center of iron mining is Krivi Rih (Government of Kherson) and vicinity. The annual production here (1903–1904) amounted to 26¼ million metric hundredweights. The entire supply of iron ore at Krivi Rih is estimated at 870 million metric hundredweights, but in the immediate vicinity there lie much larger untouched deposits. The iron content of the ores (red and brown iron ore) is 60–75%.
Other iron ore deposits of the Ukraine are of much less significance. Only in the Donetz Plateau and in the vicinity of Kerch are iron ores still mined in considerable quantities. The iron ore deposits of the Caucasus, the brown iron ores and swamp-ores of Volhynia, of the western Kiev country and of the Polissye, are not exploited, and in in the Ukrainian Carpathians of the Bukowina and Northeastern Hungary, iron mining is dying out.
The iron production of the Russian Ukraine in 1907 amounted to 39.9 million q., that is, 73% of the total Russian production. The figures for the years following are: 1908—40.3 million q. = 74%; 1909—39 million q. = 74%; 1910—43.4 million q. = 74%; 1911—51.1 million q. = 72%. These figures show clearly enough what a wealth of iron the Ukraine possesses, and what part the country plays as the chief producer of iron for Russia. [[278]]
We now come to the second group of mineral resources,—the mineral fuels. In this respect, too, the Ukraine is richly supplied. The Ukraine possesses but one coal-field in the Donetz Plateau, but this coal-field is one of the largest and richest in Europe. Its surface area is 23,000 square kilometers, the annual production (1911) 203 million metric hundredweights, that is, 70% of the total production of coal of the entire Russian Empire. Then, the coal-district on the Donetz is very rich in anthracite. In 1911, approximately 31 million metric hundredweights of anthracite were gained here (98.5% of the total Russian production). For coke-making, practically the only coal that can be used in Russia is the Donetz coal. In 1911, 33.7 million metric hundredweights of coke was gained in the Donetz region; in all the remaining coal districts of the Russian Empire, barely 13,600 q.
From these figures we see clearly that the Ukraine, despite its general agrarian character, possesses great supplies of coal, that indispensable aid in modern industry. To be sure, the Ukraine takes only seventh rank in the world’s coal production (being preceded by the United States, Great Britain, Germany, Austria-Hungary, France and Belgium) yet it is, nevertheless, not to be despised as a producing district. When we consider the backward state of material culture in Russia as a whole, the youth of the Ukrainian coal-mining industry, and the centripetal railway tariff policy of the Russian Government, we must come to realize that, with better conditions, a brilliant future awaits the Ukrainian coal industry.
The brown-coal deposits of the Ukraine are as yet but slightly explored, and, in themselves, much less important than the pit-coal deposits. A brown-coal field of 5000 square kilometers is part of the tertiary strata of the Dnieper Plateau (Kiev-Yelisavet coal region). Toward the end of the past century an annual average of 82,000 q. [[279]]of brown-coal was mined here (Katerinopol, Zuraska). Just as unimportant is the brown-coal production in the Caucasian foothills (Batalpashinsk). In the Carpathian foothill country and in the Rostoch, in 1901, over 1 million metric hundredweights of brown-coal was mined; in 1905 barely one-half that amount. Notwithstanding, some importance must be attached to the brown-coal industry in the Ukraine for the future.
Large peat deposits are widely distributed in the Polissye, in Volhynia, Podlakhia, Galicia, Kiev, Podolia, etc., but extremely little is done in the way of rational exploitation. Only in the Polissye and in Galicia (40 places in 1905) is peat cut on a large scale, altho its importance, especially for the districts of the Ukraine, which have few forests, should not be underestimated.
In petroleum and ozokerite the Ukraine is the richest land in Europe. Along the great bend of the Carpathians, beginning at the Poprad Pass, one petroleum district crowds close upon the next. They lie almost exclusively in the Ukrainian territory of Galicia, e.g., Borislav and Tustanovichi, which, in 1907, yielded about 86% of the Galician petroleum output, in the Ukrainian District of Drohobich. The Galician petroleum production in 1911 amounted to 14.9 million metric hundredweights—(in 1907 even 17.5 million metric hundredweights), and takes third rank in the world’s production (being outranked by Russian Caucasia and the United States). Considerable naphtha fields are also found in the Ukrainian sub-Caucasian country, where, in 1910, near Hrosni and Maikop, 12.6 million metric hundredweights of petroleum were gained. From the eastern tip of Crimea and the Taman peninsula to the Caspian Sea immense treasures of petroleum are hidden.
The only place in the world where ozokerite is found in large quantities is Eastern Galicia. In 1885 Borislav yielded 123,000 q. of this rare mineral. The unexampled [[280]]wastefulness in mining accounts for the fact that, in 1911, Borislav together with other small sub-Carpathian mines (Dsviniach, Starunia, Truskavetz) yielded barely 19,400 q. of ozokerite. Ozokerite is also found in the Ukrainian sub-Caucasus country, but in inconsiderable quantities.
Quite as important as the iron, coal and petroleum deposits of the Ukraine, are its salt deposits. The Ukraine has three districts of salt-production—the Carpathian foothills, the Donetz Plateau, and the Pontian-Caspian salt-lake and liman region. The sub-Carpathian salt-mines and salt-works of Galicia (Latzke, Drohobich, Stebnik, Bolekhiv, Dolina, Kalush, Delatin, Lanchin, Kossiv) all lie within Ukrainian national territory, with the single exception of Vielichka and Bokhnia. In 1911 Galicia produced about 1,440,000 q. of rock salt, most of which, to be sure, must be credited to Vielichka and Bokhnia. On the other hand, the 1,690,000 q. of manufactured salt and brine were produced mainly in the Ukrainian part of Galicia. In 1908 the salt production of the Ukrainian part of Galicia amounted to only 540,000 q. In the Donetz region there are immense deposits of rock-salt in the vicinity of Bakhmut (e.g., Branzivka with a deposit of pure rock-salt 100 meters deep). Here, in 1911, about 4.9 million metric hundredweights of rock-salt were mined (86% of the total Russian rock-salt production) and the rich salt-springs and salt-lakes exploited besides. In the Ponto-Caspian region first place is held by the salt-lakes and limans of Crimea, then follow the limans of the Kherson region (Knyalnik, etc.), the Manich lakes, etc. The amount produced vacillates between 3⅓ and 5¾ million metric hundredweights a year, and depends largely on the degree of dryness and heat of the summer season. The total salt production of the Russian Ukraine in 1907 attained 10 million metric hundredweights, or 53% of the production of the entire Russian Empire. [[281]]
Nitre salts are found in great quantities only in the Ukrainian sub-Carpathian country. In 1901 the amount produced was about 179,000 q.; in the year of 1908 it decreased to 121,000 q.
Besides the above-mentioned most important treasures of the soil, minerals less important, but yet noteworthy, are found in the Ukraine. In Podolia and the adjoining border strips of Bessarabia there lie some rich deposits of phosphorites (70–75% phosphoric acid), out of which, in 1907, over 114,000 q. (72% of the total Russian production) were mined. In the districts of Katerinoslav, Kherson, Poltava, Chernihiv, Kiev, Volhynia, in 1907, over 216,000 q. of kaolin were mined. Outside of the Ukraine no kaolin is found in Russia. Good pottery clays are found thruout the Ukraine, mostly around Kiev, Chernihiv and Poltava. Fireproof clays occur in the Donetz Plateau, slate in the Zaporoze (Katerinoslav), lithographic stone in Podolia (near Kamianez and Mohiliv), graphite (in inconsiderable quantities, to be sure) in Volhynia, on the Sluch River, near Krivi Rih (Kherson), in the districts of Kiev and Katerinoslav, mineral paints near Lissichansk (Donetz region), Krivi Rih, and Yelisavet (Kherson), Stari Oskol (Kursk). Sulphur is obtained on the upper course of the Kuban River, pumice stone in the Caucasus, rotten-stone near Svenihorodka (Kiev). Mill-stones are obtained in many places, the best variety near Hlukhiv (Chernihiv), whetstones especially in the Poltava region and in the Devonian region of Galician-Podolia (Terebovla). Chalk is widely distributed in Podolia, Volhynia and Kharkiv, gypsum in Podolia and Pokutia (beautiful alabasters), as well as in the Donetz region. Building-stones, lime, sand, loam are found everywhere in the Ukraine and are of good quality. The most fit for masonry work are the devonian sandstone of Podolia, the granite gneisses of the Dnieper Plateau, and the old eruptive formations of Volhynia. [[282]]
From this short survey of the mineral resources of the Ukraine, we perceive that the Ukraine, altho in this respect it does not compare with the countries of Western and Central Europe, yet does produce a great deal, and after a thoro change in the political and cultural conditions, should be able to occupy an important place in the world’s production of mineral wealth. At present the Ukrainian people contributes only the poorly-paid labor, while the profit falls to the foreign rulers.